YouSaid · the spoken record

Stephen Starr

lines on the record: 98
first: 2026-06-22
most recent: 2026-06-22
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Percentage wise, I don't know. A lot of hard work, right? I could not stand being bored. They always had to have something to do. So part of it was that, but there's a lot of luck, a lot of luck. And again, back to the music analogy. You know, you talk to a Bruce Springsteen about his career. He said, it could never happen again. It was a different time. Radio was a certain way. They toured, bands played clubs. It's a different time now. I couldn't do it. So a lot of it's luck. A lot of it.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, that would hurt, but you know, it's like when Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen sold their publishing, it hurt them. But there were like a few hundred millions of dollars. So that kind of, at some point, you got to take care of yourself and your family.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I don't think she wants. I don't think she would. It's a brutal, brutal business. The best thing for everybody is to have an exit. Private equity probably be the last thing you want to do, but I would do it. The perfect exit is to be acquired by a company that has some sort of a synergy and relationship to what you do. My fantasy, you know, we run the Louis Vuitton restaurant in New York City would be that LVMH come in and acquire Star Restaurants or part of us. Luxury brand, great taste, great design, aesthetic. I'd be proud to have somebody like that come in and buy us. Or even like a Disney, I don't know why they would buy it, but a Disney, somebody like that, somebody that I look up to that I admire private equity. You know, it's about money, who knows if they'd take care of it the way that I would.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that's the sort of warrior in me. I'd love to compete with Shake Shack and do my own version or a different, you know, something else that's fast casual.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think it naturally will stop. I mean, it's, I mean, I've done so much. And we'll see if we sell or if my daughter, Sarah, or my son who's not old enough to do this yet, Julian, maybe they'd be interested. But the other thing I'd like to do is the opposite of what I've done. I'd like to do like a fast casual thing, like Shake Shack.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, affordability, right? The key word in the next election. Things are too expensive. COVID happened. Everything doubled. The air conditioning. What used to cost $600,000 is now $1.7, $1.8 million. They said, oh, it'll come down. It didn't come down. Kitchens, $500,000 kitchen normally, one point five million, one point eight million. It's just off the charts. And minimum wage went up. And I think minimum wage should have gone up. I think it's the right thing to do. But I think at a certain point, especially with tipped employees, I don't know if it should keep going up because, I mean, it's going to be impossible for restaurants to really keep to stay in business.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You can't. In other words, if you open it up on your own and you borrow $12 million, it's going to take you 10 years. Yeah, not worth it. So that's why to open the things that I do, you have to have landlords that want you for other reasons other than your rent. You're helping get tenants and build neighborhoods. That's what it boils down to. Otherwise, I just open small restaurants. You're better off doing something like that.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think that again, I'm going to scale down the model. We still want to make it special and sort of take your breath away in a different kind of way. But I think opening restaurants that are 200 seats, the expense of those restaurants is just, it's too risky.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Buy one gift certificate, get one free. Well, in like 36 hours we did like ten million dollars. It was very emotional because we had our people believed in, like, it was almost therapy for them saying, you know what? It's a good deal. Let's take advantage of this star thing right now because you know we're going to come back from this thing. And then the thing that saved everyone was the PPP money, the government thing. Without that, gone. We would have been gone.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. I mean, well, the servers, managers, couldn't pay them anymore. And we had to lay off most of the office, but I couldn't lay off all of the office because you couldn't lay off the controller. He had the books, and I didn't even know how to pay a bill. So there were millions of dollars of salaries we had to continue to pay. And then I said, you know what? We used to do these gift certificate things every holiday, always sold star gift certificates. So I said, you know what? Let's, what the hell?”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So this thing happened. I was devastated, of course, like everyone else. And then I looked and I said, how much money do we have in the bank? A few million dollars. Five, seven? I said, okay, cool. We're cool. But what about the accounts payable? Fifteen million. 10 to 15 million. So I said, how could we possibly ever pay? What are we going to do? But what happened is that everybody was very, all the vendors, except for maybe one, was very understanding, and we paid a little bit to everybody, so you know our intentions were good. But I had, and we laid everyone off, but I couldn't lay everybody off because we were too big to do that.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, no. I mean, it's nice. Look, the James Beard Award, that was the thing, man. It was like the Academy Award or an Emmy. Like people could say it's not important. It was important. It felt good. It was emotional to be recognized like that for sure.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, there is, and that's why I will say this, that I could never, ever, ever do this again. I don't think anyone could replicate what I did without having some giant money behind them from the beginning. By the way, when we open new restaurants, I'm not financing them myself anymore. We go in, landlord wants us to open. They have to put up a good significant part of the money now. To open a restaurant that would cost sixteen, seventeen million dollars, it's impossible. So, you know, the best advice I have, if you want to go, I would say don't go into the restaurant business, but if you do, keep it smaller. There's a sweet spot of around, I think, around 85 to 95 seats try and turn the tables two and a half three times. And I think that's the best model right now. And if I continue to do this, I'm going to try and stay within that model.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“One guy could decide that's it, I'm leaving, and the whole restaurant falls apart that night. I said, you know what Seymour, you're right. Stupid business. You know, when you send an army into battle, the generals give you a statistic of how many casualties you're going to have. Like every so often there's got to be something that's too salty, a waiter that was rude, a host that didn't look up when you walked in. There's got to be a cook that walked out, a server that said that he or she were sexually harassed. I mean, it happens all the time. I mean, I have a big staff of people now, but I'm still on the phone at 11.30 at night dealing with fires. Know what it's made me a smarter, wiser person dealing with all this. And probably hopefully will delay dementia quite a few years because my brain is constantly having to think.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, you can, and I'll tell you what they are. But, you know, the more you say what you just said, the more I realize what a stupid business this is to be in. You're right. Look, one of our landlords, Seymour Rubin, said to me, he goes, why would you want to be in a business where one guy, a dishwasher, could just stop the whole operation?”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, of all of you are honest with yourselves. You've done that before. You've gone to a place and then one time they kind of screw you. That's it. Fuck them.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Move on. It's sad. That's my sad time when it opens. That's no longer, I mean, of course I pay attention to it. I go to the restaurants all the time. I'm always eating the food, unfortunately. But the thrill is gone the day after it opens.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely. What gets me out of the bed other than having to go pee now as they get older is the excitement of creating. And after it comes to life, I'm not so excited anymore. But I love the process. I love the stress.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's just breathtaking. I said to the people around me, I said, you know what, this is it. I said, what do you mean? This is it. I said, I can't do any better than this. This is Sergeant Pepper. I just did Sergeant Pepper. How am I going to do better than this?”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“and come up with a design that was spectacular. So, who did I go to? I went to Philippe Stark again. And it just didn't work out. And I went to plan B and went to Christian Lyagra, which was another French architect designer who's a genius. He agreed to do it for a giant amount of money, and he put together probably the most spectacular restaurant that I've ever done.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. And I wanted to do it. It was, you know, I guess part of it was ego. I had also been nominated for James Beard Award a few times when I was in Philly. And I would go there and I get nominated and I never would win because, you know, I was, I don't think I was really taken seriously. And I didn't think the people in New York, the chefs and the restaurant owners took me that seriously either. I wanted to make it big apple. So he did it. We did it for Boudicon and Mori Moro. Buddhacan I got scared with Boudicon because Buddhacan basically wasn't that novel. So I knew I had to change the food, make it different”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I had a staff of people under me, the directors that were basically, if you look back at old, they're checkers. I had a bunch of checkers. What does that mean? They go out and check stuff. Go check that. Go check that restaurant. Now they have fancy names, but they're just checkers. And that's what I did. I just checked on things. But my emphasis was on the food, even though I was not a chef. I was not a self-proclaimed foodie, but I had a very good palate and good palate memory. So I remembered what things should taste like. And my obsession even to this day is to taste the food and make sure the food is consistent. I am the number one person doing that. But basically, the ambiance, the people who tell you that work for me, I'm obsessed with the air conditioning, the lights, the sound, along with the food.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it was only myself and one other venture capital guy who had his client. It was just me and them in the beginning for their first 10, 12 restaurants and a bank loan. So it was good. Most people you read about or you talk to in the restaurant business, they got like 15 people that invest money in them and it's a nightmare because you don't want 15 different people who think they own the restaurant”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, we were doing way more than that in the beginning. And that's because, again, the world didn't completely change yet. You know, the same guy that was able to build a restaurant and open it for $90,000 was able to make a 20 or 25% profit. Today, not possible. Today, between the rent, labor costs, this cost, that cost, that regulation, this thing, that thing, whatever thing, you're lucky, like you said, to make 10%.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, no, that's not the formula. That's the goal. But the formula is a lot of it's magic. I mean, it just happens. You got to do, basically you got to do something that people really like when they walk in. There's got to be something that touches them. Like you have to hear that sound in their voice like that you take your breath away a little bit. And it could be from a light, a lighting, it could be from a vibe, a smell, whatever. And it's not an easy form. There's no recipe for it”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Philly, here's the deal it was like the Wild West. It was like opening. It was like the West Coast when the New Yorkers all moved in and took over Hollywood. There was nothing here. It was all old school restaurants. They were boring. So you open continental people freak out. You open Budacon. They'd never seen anything like it.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, you know, I was still old school, didn't have computers. I had a checkbook. And I remember I just figured it wouldn't be that profitable. I'd make some money out of it. I never thought I'd make a lot of money. And all of a sudden I remember telling my wife at the time. I said, you know, I just looked at the checkbook last week. She goes, yeah, how much was in there? I said, $30,000. And then four weeks later, I said, something's wrong. Why? I have $75,000 in the checkbook. Are you sure you paid everything? Yeah. It just kept growing and growing.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, it was like a nightclub. It was like Studio 54 of restaurants. You know, back then people were still allowed to smoke in the restaurants. So we had a smoking section. But then there was like this whole singles thing at the bar. It was surreal how popular it was.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I make all these connections to the music business. So it's like being an A&R guy. You know, you're out looking for new bands. I'm really good at recognizing talent. Also, last night when I was on Instagram, I saw this thing that Steve Jobs said that freaked me out because I say it all the time. He was being interviewed. Did really good work, but nothing like they did when they were together. I'm not enough by myself to have that group, that corps of two to three other people made me stronger and made me better.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When I saw that movie, The Aviator with Leonard DiCaprio, about, what's his name, Howard Hughes? It scared me because it felt like me because he cowered you kept going no more let's do it again shoot that scene again I don't care let's bring in the and it was frightening because I said oh shit I do stuff like this but on a much smaller level with these restaurants you know you got to control yourself at a certain point too”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, but again, if you talk to any of the designers that worked with me, they'll tell you that I'm a unique client in the sense that I respect what they do. Most business people, and I don't look at myself as a businessman, I think it's insulting to be called a businessman. I'm a creative person that happens to end up being a businessman because I have to be. But where a business guy will go, those damn designers, they spend money because they don't give a shit what they spend. They just want to, and I don't look at it like that at all. I look at it like, give me the best that you can give me. If it's too much, I'll tell you. I want to blow people away, man. Shock and awe. And, you know, part of it is a bad thing because I have to be concerned with money too, with budgets.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I knew what I liked, but I also knew what people liked. And back then, restaurants were a little mundane. People wanted to feel sexy and escape. And that's what we did in the beginning. We took you to another place.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The design aesthetic is something that was just in me that I unleashed once I started seeing things. You know, I wasn't the director. I was the executive producer. In the movie business, so I was, you know, Samuel Goldwyn. But I kind of had an aesthetic of what the right aesthetic to know the right director to hire, the right lead actor and actress, and maybe what the soundtrack sounded like. It just was there. I don't know where it came from.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“For Continental was all mine, the Buddhicon, we got an investor. Was actually a friend of mine who had a venture capital fund and one of his clients was willing to do this. So this particular client put up a 1.9 million. Today, kitchens cost $1 million, just a kitchen.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I didn't even think about it, but he didn't want to do it because I think it was in Philadelphia. Owen and I said, come on, let's do it. We bought his furniture. We made it look like his restaurant. Boom. Again, when Owen and I walked out of that restaurant, it just got dark. We looked through the windows and we saw this thing. And it was just like we got choked up. It was so awesome.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Buddha Khan, the original Buddhacan, was a Pan Asian restaurant, so it was sort of fusion. It's very theatrical in its design, and a centerpiece of it is a 12 foot golden Buddha. Again, I don't take credit for the culinary concept. I did not create on my own. It started with Wolfgang Puck at a restaurant. He had in California called Chinois on Maine. Then another gentleman opened a place called China Grill in New York and in Miami. And I had gone to all these places, loved the energy, and I went and spoke with different designers to ask if they would design my restaurant, one of which was Philippe Stark, who turned me down, but said, There's ways of buying my furniture, call these people. So I ended up designing myself with my friend Owen Kamahira.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, continental became an iconic restaurant in Philadelphia. It was, I'd say, the most popular restaurant in Philly. And it created a renaissance in the old city section of Philadelphia. It really was the catalyst for that renaissance with restaurants and retail.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And we had a statue of Lenin in the bar, and we had Russian food, beef stroganov, pierogies, caviar. But it was in a weird neighborhood in Philly. Had no parking and didn't work out.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I hate using the word Soviet sounds very, very, I feel like treasonous. It was Russian. It was called Cafe Republic. It served great cocktails. Russian vodka. We had the Siberian six-pack, which was six little shot glasses of vodka, one of which was a brand name that I found called Carl Marx Vodka.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They just wanted a salary And thank God I would have shot myself if I had given them like 30% of the business. And look. You know, you learn by making mistakes, and I knew all the mistakes I made. And, you know, I couldn't make mistakes. And I hated it. I hated being there all night. I hated dealing with drunks. It was tough.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I couldn't figure out how to run it. It's like Yogi Berra who said nobody goes there anymore because it's too crowded. It was just so crowded. We couldn't get the food out. I mean, I remember one time the local police department came over to get like 40 burgers. Awesome. Burgers go out. The cop comes back 20 minutes later. He goes, what the hell is this? He opens up the thing. He opens the bun. There's 40 buns, but no burgers inside the bun. So, the reason I'm telling you this story, I was scared to death of food. I was afraid to do food. So when I did the Continental, I knew I had to have it, but I actually was so scared I just wanted to hire a chef and give him or her a percentage of the business just to take care of it because I didn't know what I was doing.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, and but there's another part of the story I hate doing this to you because I'm skipping something in between when I was still in the music business a friend of mine wanted to open a restaurant that was based upon a fifties concept like Johnny Rockets or something like that and I opened a place that was like a fast food restaurant and it was called Shake Burger and Roll. Cool name. Great little design I came up with with a guy, a good interior designer from New York. The place was packed. You couldn't get in. And it went out of business in nine months.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I certainly wasn't then. I was a rock and roll guy. I was a music guy. I was a loved comedy. And food was just something to do as part of my social life. I sort of matured and grew into it. And now I know it very well, obviously. And I have great respect and reverence for it. Back then, going to a restaurant was just something to do. It was like going to the movies.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And it was all young people coming out who never knew what a martini was. They were getting drunk on martinis because they didn't know how to handle them.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Open in ninety five had this a lot of incredible buildup. I put these like full page ads and these sort of hipster local papers. It was like studs turkele, like these little quotes. And people were just, they were sort of intrigued by this thing. Martini bar. And it was packed from the day I opened it. There was a line around the block. And just like the concert business, I always thought, you know, you knew when a show was a success and the first five minutes you put the tickets on sale. Hit that ticket machine, boom. You start seeing the tickets flying out. Done. You knew you had a winner. I used to have the same theory about restaurants. If it wasn't packed from the day I opened the door, we're going to fail. So this place had lines around the block to get in. People loved the food. It was sort of global tapis food. And it just was this huge, huge success. And this little restaurant that did $3,000 a week, this previous owner, eventually ended up doing $100,000 a week.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“ninety grand and I remember the heat the heater would go out every twenty minutes have to run down like the pilot because I didn't have money to replace the heating system”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So the diner was the diner. We took the existing booths and re-uholstered them in green olive, right? Green with red piping. There's the pimento. So existing booths re upholstered, the bar top which was for mica wheat, encased it in concrete, kept the bar stools, and it reuholstered them in red and green. And then Owen Kamahira, the artist, brilliant idea, brilliant idea. He created lighting fixtures that were big olives with giant toothpick through the lighting fixture. So from the street, it was this incredible postcard that you could see through the blinds. And Miguel came up with this drink rack, a glass rack above the bar, and all the martini glasses. He filled them in loose sight. So all the cocktail glasses were hanging above you, and they looked like they were full.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, exactly. So I went through several different ideas, talked to a few different designers, and came back to the idea of doing the martini bar. And I hired the guy that did Global 33. His name was Miguel Calvo. He happened to be the DJ. He was both the designer of the restaurant and the DJ back then. And then a local friend of mine named Owen Kamahira, who was an artist in Philadelphia, and the three of us put together the idea and the concept for the design of the restaurant. So I did the whole thing for $90,000.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes. And it was built in 1962. So it wasn't a 50s diner. 59er would not have been cool. This was a 60s diner. Had a little different vibe to it.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I saw this diner at Second of Market Street in Philadelphia. It was called the Continental. It was a Greek guy that owned it. His last name, I think it was Poulos. And I said, you know what? Would you ever think about renting this out to me? He goes, why? Why would I do that? I said, because I think I could do something here. He goes, what are you going to do? I'm doing $3,000 a week. What are you going to do? Five, six. Eventually he gave in because he wasn't busy and he leased it to me.”
2026-06-22 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · STARR Restaurants: Stephen Starr. How a Non-Foodie Built Thriving Restaurants on Gut Instinct · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT